Chapter 253: Ch 253: CreepyPasta#18: Now, You May Kiss the Bride
* been a while since I’ve named the creepy pastas. srry guys
Lee Jaheon opened his eyes.
A tidy bedsheet, exposed gray bricks. An old-fashioned, clean atmosphere
filled this two-person dormitory room.
Outside the window, gray clouds hung low and heavy, maintaining their
dull, sunless density.
In the fifteen days since he’d awoken here, he had not once seen sunlight.
It must be a feature of this place.
♩– ♩–
A deep, resonant bell sounded. Lee Jaheon rose from the bed and changed
clothes.
At St. Anticus Boarding School, it was the rule that students always wear
their uniforms outside of the bedroom.
He folded his pajamas neatly on the bed.
All trainees were given pajamas made from the same gray linen fabric, cut
to a standardized pattern and divided into five sizes. Lee Jaheon had been
given the largest size, and he folded it completely.
But that wasn’t the only garment that needed to be arranged.
Next to the groom trainee’s pajamas, one must always neatly fold the white
dress of the bride.
This was part of ’training as a groom’, a component of the school’s
curriculum titled ’Lessons for a Successful Wedding Ceremony’.
Lee Jaheon finished arranging everything in an instant and left the
dormitory at the designated time.
♩– ♩–
Then came breakfast.
One must not be late for meals, must sit upright, and must handle the
cutlery in the prescribed order.
The menu varied daily, but today’s consisted of almonds, roasted heart, and
cornelian cherry juice.
During the meal, trainees were instructed to ensure the bride’s glass was
never left empty.
The seat opposite the groom was empty, yet the goblet set for the bride
would occasionally have its contents vanish for no reason.
A trainee failed. Demerits accumulated.
♩– ♩–
In the morning, grooms learned refinement.
They studied poems and idioms about marriage and recited them, practiced
the instruments favored by brides, and learned etiquette for receiving
guests.
By ’our’ decision, Lee Jaheon completed every task without a single
reprimand.
A trainee failed. Demerits accumulated.
♩– ♩–
Lunch consisted of light sandwiches or finger foods. The groom trainees
were instructed to ’grow accustomed to the bride’s form’ through the
fingers served alongside.
So they could later slip the ring on skillfully during the ceremony.
In the afternoon, the group went together to the kitchen to prepare the
evening’s multi-course meal.
It was a lesson on how to select fresh ingredients and cooking them
according to the bride’s tastes...
"Urk— blaargh!"
"..."
"..."
"W-Wait, no, don’t...!!"
A trainee failed. Demerits accumulated.
♩– ♩–
The evening course meal was long and elegant. Groom trainees maintained
composure and dined quietly, gracefully.
Taking into account the bride’s dietary habits, they learned to identify and
leave untouched whatever foods they should not eat from their own plates.
Once the final dessert was served, they cleaned up, offered words of
gratitude to the head instructor for the day’s lessons, and were finally
permitted to rise from their seats.
♩– ♩–
Then came a short period of rest.
Lee Jaheon walked down the hallway at the prescribed pace.
At this boarding school, trainees were encouraged to avoid stepping into
’unclean areas’ outside of trainee-designated zones, and even their method
of rest was recommended.
The ideal way, it was said, was to spend rest time contemplating ’what
vows one would declare to the bride at the wedding ceremony’.
Sometimes, this would be asked about during the following day’s breakfast,
so one should be prepared with an answer...
Someone grabbed his arm in the hallway.
"Hey, hey...!"
Lee Jaheon stopped walking.
A desperate whisper followed.
"Y-You’re human, right? You are, aren’t you...!"
"Yes."
A pale face, a terrified expression.
A civilian.
"What... what the hell is this place? What’s going on!"
"This is a boarding school where training is conducted to become a good
groom by the judgment of St. Anticus."
"What the fuck are you even talking about— There’s no such thing in 21st-
century Korea!"
Lee Jaheon replied,
"Yes, it does not exist."
"H-Huuuh?"
He began to step forward again...
"W-Wait! So... you mean this isn’t Korea? What, is this some cult? Were
we kidnapped? What the hell, this isn’t some horror game... or ghost story,
right?"
"You are correct."
"...Huh?"
"You are currently trapped within a supernatural phenomenon that could be
classified as a ghost story."
Lee Jaheon finished his response.
And then, as planned, he began walking again...
"Hey."
...
"Then why the fuck are you so calm? You’re calm because you know how
to get out, right? That’s it, isn’t it?"
"That is not the case."
"The hell it isn’t. Fuck."
The whisper, lost and desperate, tangled with a feverish rage, his eyes
rolling white.
Anyone else listening would’ve felt a chill.
Lee Jaheon didn’t register that complicated, twisted tension, but he clearly
understood the next words.
"Since we’re both going to die anyway, want to die together?"
"N—"
"The hell you wouldn’t. If I fight you here, we both get penalized, you
goddamned bastard. You want both of us to rack up penalties, or you wanna
share the way out?"
It was a threat.
—Do not raise your voice during rest hours.
He must have known that rule.
Or rather, that’s probably how he’d survived this long...
The only problem was that fear had dulled his observation.
"Hey, answer—"
"Do not walk while pressing your feet down."
"...Huh?"
It was already too late.
A massive shadow loomed over the man who had grabbed Lee Jaheon.
The disciplinary supervisor.
"W-Wait a minute. We weren’t fighting, really. We were just having a chat.
It’s rest time, you know? Haha, ha..."
The supervisor nodded.
However, since their actions violated the school’s educational objectives, he
announced that demerits would be accumulated.
Of course, this was not expulsion, merely an act of encouragement and
assistance.
"...Please?"
Because they had stomped their feet and made noise in the hallway.
Imagine, a groom behaving so disgracefully at his own wedding, how
shameful that would be. Therefore, it must be corrected now.
That’s why you are receiving instruction at St. Anticus Boarding School.
"W-Wait—"
The man was seized.
"Ghk—!"
The education housemaster moved to assist the penalized trainee.
According to the offense.
"—!!!"
The surface of the man’s soles were sliced open.
The housemaster kindly placed soft rubber and clay into his hands,
materials to mold soundproof pads matching the shape of his feet.
He must complete the pads himself and insert them into the wounds on his
soles for the penalty to end.
A gag made of cotton and flesh was inserted into his mouth to prevent him
from screaming.
Blood from the body convulsing in pain and terror stained the corridor red.
That, too, was a violation.
—Do not cause any disturbance during lessons.
Further corrective action was taken within the housemaster’s deliberation.
The trainee, once his foot procedure was finished, was to walk silently on
his own, repeating the task until he could do so without making any sound
at all.
"...!!, !!!"
Before this entire scene, Lee Jaheon briefly tried to judge it by ’our’
standards.
The justification for helping.
The practicality of helping.
...
Both reached conclusions.
Of the three trainees who had sought his help over the past fifteen days, two
died instantly during demerit accumulation, and one died mid-training from
complications.
Compared to the two who had sobbed as they were forced to penalize
themselves, the housemaster’s ’assisted’ penalty might, in terms of mental
anguish, actually be merciful.
Better that than struggling in terror and resignation to carry out some
unthinkable act that amounted to self-torture just to survive.
Ambiguous.
Negative.
"——!!, !, ..."
The noise in the corridor faded.
To avoid accumulating demerits, Lee Jaheon walked quietly and silently
back to his dormitory room.
And there, he saw it.
On the opposite bed lay a trainee dead, his entrails ruptured due to wrong
ingredients used for dinner.
It seemed he had tried to extract the food directly from his own small
intestine.
"..."
♩– ♫– ♩–
The tone of the bell changed.
It now marked the hour when movement was forbidden. To protect the
bride’s privacy, the groom must rest inside his bedroom.
Lee Jaheon reached for his white formal uniform to change...
– Section Chief.
"..."
Lee Jaheon blinked.
A voice rang in his head.
It wasn’t ’ours’.
It was someone else’s.
However...
It was a person’s individuality that he could recognize.
– Are you all right, sir?
"Yes."
Kim Soleum.
After several months, the voice of the colleague who had once been his
squadmate resounded in his mind.
But though it was perceived as a voice, it was not truly sound, Lee Jaheon
knew that.
It was Kim Soleum’s mind.
Much like how we are connected to one another, Kim Soleum was now
present inside Lee Jaheon’s mind.
How was that possible?
– Please listen carefully, Section Chief.
– I’m not a hallucination or a fake. I’m really inside your head.
In fact, he already knew that.
Because Lee Jaheon was part of ’us’, he knew one of them had met Kim
Soleum and spoken with him.
And in the same way, he knew the method Kim Soleum used to enter his
mind and establish a mental link.
– I used the ’We Can Help!’ button in reverse to enter your body, sir.
Indeed.
...That was Kim Soleum’s idea. He’d gone to the alien reptiles at the Space
Shopping Mall, proposed entering Lee Jaheon’s body himself while trapped
inside the ghost story, and to do an escape attempt from within.
Reasoning that since there was an item like ’We Can Help!’ the same
mechanism could likely work in reverse.
’If the ghost story’s entrance is blocked, then use someone who’s already
inside!’
And it really did.
– If you grant me control over your body, I’ll clear this darkness and get us
out of here myself.
Lee Jaheon could feel the quiet pride radiating from inside his own mind.
Kim Soleum’s pride.
A similar chemical reaction of emotion rose within himself as well.
Relief. Familiarity.
– Then... please hand over control.
However.
"No."
– ...?!
* * *
’No but why!’
I felt like stifling a scream as I tore at the lizard’s head... no, saw through
the lizard’s viewpoint.
After experiencing every detail of what had just happened from all angles
as I entered his mind, I just wanted to get out of here already, no arguing, no
waiting!
’This is a full-blown, deranged gore-type horror story!’
A crazy boarding school ghost story.
...This Darkness where Section Chief Lee Jaheon was currently trapped,
the one Baek Saheon called that insane boarding school horror, was a story
I’d actually read about before on the wiki.
========================
Dark Exploration Records / Ghost Story
[Now, You May Kiss the Bride]
Dark Exploration Records>
: Daydream Inc. identification code – Qterw-C-5012.
It details the strange events occurring within an
educational institution named St. Anticus Boarding
School.
This institution, which presents itself as a ’school for
grooms preparing for marriage’, is always recruiting
applicants for its lessons and runs a experiential training
course.
Most of the exploration records are accounts of what
participants experienced while completing this trial
program.
The stories are always written in essay form, like
autobiographical recollections.
They begin with lessons in etiquette and refinement
seemingly suitable for an upper-class wedding, but the
curriculum gradually grows ritualistic and bizarre. Its
eerie charm lies in piecing together what the ’wedding’
truly means.
The calm, essay-like tone describing the horrific ’demerit
accumulation’ experiences makes it a suffocating,
grotesque horror story.
========================
Back then... it was fine when I had read it before.
Because it was just text on a screen.
’But seeing it firsthand, this is just straight up nightmarish.’
Even through the dulled senses of body 130666, I found myself exhaling
shakily at the horror of it.
Then again, since this body was asleep while only my consciousness
connected into Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s body, maybe I was perceiving it
even more vividly.
’Anyway... after coming up with this method, I worked myself to death
gathering intel...’
I had shaken down Kwak Jekang for every scrap of information, and even
interviewed people on the list of those who’d escaped before using C-grade
Dream Essence.
Namely, the security sergeant and Supervisor Park Minseong.
Apparently, back when they were both part of the Field Exploration Team,
they’d been suitable subjects because they were unmarried men.
It was a bit embarrassing, really. It was something you shouldn’t just ask a
teammate when you’ve vanished for ages and just reappeared before even
having the time to properly catch up.
Of course, we did talk about a few things beforehand... and I’d even heard
some news about Director Cheong from Kwak Jekang, but that could wait
until later.
Right now, the urgent issue was this.
Lee Jaheon’s escape.
– Please trust me, Section Chief.
– If you’ll just hand over control, I can act quickly and make sure you
complete the training successfully.
– You’re... asking me to tell you that...?
I’d analyzed <Dark Exploration Records>, cross-referenced interviews, and
identified its rules, anomalies, and weak points.
I knew the passing criteria, and I’d even devised an unconventional way to
’graduate’.
’All he has to do is let me do it...!’
Even if Section Chief Lee Jaheon had failed the test and was trapped in an
endless remedial loop, I could still pull him out!
Even if a new session hadn’t begun and he was stuck in some kind of repeat
course, I’d found a way to break through.
– I’ll make sure you pass this test, sir.
"I see."
Yes!
"But that won’t be necessary."
...
– Sir?
"Yes."
No, this reptilian alien wasn’t picking a fight on purpose.
He genuinely meant he didn’t need my help.
...Wait.
Then that means...
– Why... don’t you need it?
"Because I’ve already passed."
...
"I was selected separately during the trial program. I’ve become an official
student, one of the groom candidates chosen to wed the White Bride. The
wedding is imminent."
Hold on.
"To avoid it, I considered using a Sacred Fire bombardment, but we decided
to postpone the operation due to the severe risk of civilian casualties."
...
"Mr. Roe Deer?"
– So, you’re saying you’re actually getting married soon, sir?
"If things continue as they are, yes."
Oh, I’m going crazy.
– ...Any other unusual details?
"There are."
– Please explain.
"Yes. To achieve an appearance befitting the ceremony, each groom
candidate performs nightly bloodletting before bed to attain a complexion
as pale as the bride’s gown."
Then Section Chief Lee Jaheon reached into the drawer by his bed.
...He took out a modern-looking syringe device for drawing blood.
But the size of it...
Wait. That thing’s that big?
"If this continues for more than four days, Lee Jaheon will become a high-
risk case for fatal anemia and complications."
...
...Section Chief!!